The Garden Under Glass

102 THE GARDEN UNDER GLASS and can be practically dried off after flowering. It can also be raised from seeds or from cuttings. SCHIZANTHUS At last we arrive at a plant which all might grow. Rapid strides have been made of late years in the improvement of these plants since the time when S. pinnatus was some-times seen in the greenhouse. Carter’s and Sutton’s may be relied on to give good strains, though the seeds would cost a few pence more than from some other firms. I do not advise the growing of schizanthuses to flower in the summer-time. They run too quickly to flower and do not form such handsome specimens as when grown in the autumn and winter, when the future is built up on a soild groundwork of slow growth. I ad vise that seeds be sown at intervals between the latter part of August and of October. It may happen that some will run prematurely to flower, but with several batches having a break of but a fortnight between them this difficulty is easily overcome. The earlier batches may be sown in a pan stood in a cold frame and only be protected during rain. It is important that they be kept cool. They greatly resent forcing, and as a guide it may be said that their ideal temperature would be between 40° and 450. Plants from these sowings should give a succession of flowers from January till June, a sufficiently lengthy period to prevent us firing of them. A method of culture which I have found eminently successful is to prick off the young seedlings into boxes as soon as the first sign of a rough leaf is seen. When the growths touch, the plantlets may be potted singly into 3-inch pots, be thence, in due course, transferred to